Free Republic

In two separate incidents at Otay Mesa and San Ysidro, agents discovered a total of 28 parrots and three chickens during suspected smuggling attempts. The first incident unfolded on April 30 at the Otay Mesa port of entry. After the 51-year-old driver exited his vehicle, officers noticed peculiar bulges around his ankles. A safety pat-down revealed a shocking discovery: six live, undeclared parrots crammed inside the man’s boots, according to a CBP release. A further search of the vehicle uncovered six additional parrots, sadly, two of which had died. Just days later, on May 4, at the San Ysidro port...

"Exotic animal dealer who had monkeypox has Q fever - But S. Milwaukee man probably caught rare, flu-like ailment while inspecting cows, not selling pets" _______________________________________________________ The South Milwaukee pet dealer at the center of the monkeypox outbreak has now been diagnosed with a second rare animal-borne disease: Q fever, which he likely got from his job as a federal meat inspector. He also still has four prairie dogs that he refuses to euthanize even though public health officials want him to in the interest of preventing future monkeypox infections. Scott Knapp, owner of SK Exotics, disclosed his new illness...

A Florida woman who was arrested for pulling a small alligator out of her yoga pants during a traffic stop pleaded guilty to illegally possessing animals and was sentenced to probation, authorities said. The woman, 25-year-old Ariel Machan-Le Quire, was arrested in May when she and 22-year-old Michael Clemons were pulled over by Charlotte County cops after Clemons ran a stop sign, according to police.

Dog rescuers, flush with donations, buy animals from the breeders they scorn An effort that animal rescuers began more than a decade ago to buy dogs for $5 or $10 apiece from commercial breeders has become a nationwide shadow market that today sees some rescuers, fueled by Internet fundraising, paying breeders $5,000 or more for a single dog. The result is a river of rescue donations flowing from avowed dog saviors to the breeders, two groups that have long disparaged each other. The rescuers call many breeders heartless operators of inhumane “puppy mills” and work to ban the sale of...

...A traveler from Ghana tried to bring 14 Giant African Land Snails into the US...one of the worst invasive species...could have been devastating to crops.